Serpent Spread - Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 6/9 sec of its total duration.

Which totally nerfs this talent but seeing as MS is now

Multi-Shot - Fires several missiles, hitting your current target and all enemies within yards of that target for x% of weapon damage. / 40 Focus, 5-35 yd range, Instant

it terms of aoe, assuming much more than 3 targets tho, it might prove to be an overall dps increase...

Comment by Nekrotik

Yes, you'll definitely want to use this with Improved Serpent Sting. For one thing, Serpent Spread is near the bottom of the Survival tree and only SV hunters will have access to it. To even get to the second level of the SV tree, you're going to need both points in ImpSS along with the 3 points in Improved Tracking. But there's another reason to take ImpSS + Serpent Spread.

Multi-Shot didn't get a lot of use in WotLK because you had Volley and (most likely) Aimed Shot. But Volley has been removed from the game in Cataclysm and replaced with Multi-Shot as the hunter's sole ranged AoE ability (unless you count Explosive Trap used with Trap Launcher as ranged AoE). Unfortunately, it hits for much lower damage than Volley (presently 1/3 to 1/2 in beta). Serpent Spread allows Multi-Shot to add a portion of Serpent Sting's damage, and ImpSS further increases the amount of instant damage each target receives. The combination of the newly designed Multi-Shot with ImpSS + Serpent Spread appears (for now) to make it a somewhat suitable replacement for Volley in many situations (with certain limitations I'll mention below).

Multi-Shot now hits unlimited random targets within its attack cone (not just 3 as before). It isn't channeled like Volley (so you can use it on the move) and won't be interrupted when you take damage. The bad news is, it costs 40 focus, so you'll only get it off twice before you have to fire a couple of Steady Shots to replenish, unless you spec talents that reduce the focus cost. MM hunters can potentially string together three Multi-Shots if they're at 100 focus when they fire the first one. With 2 points in Bombardment, each time a Multi-Shot crits it reduces the focus cost of the next one to 20, which is almost bound to happen on groups of 4-5 or more targets. So the focus cost of three shots becomes 40-20-40 if only the first one crits or 40-20-20 if the second one also crits. (If other talents, abilities or buffs cause 20 or more focus to replenish during that time, it's theoretically possible a 4th shot could be squeezed in, but I don't know if that's ever actually happened.) BM hunters have The Beast Within (reduces focus cost 50% for 10 seconds, 2 minute cooldown) and Fervor (instantly restores 50 focus, also on a 2 minute cd). SV hunters have no way to get around the focus cost; instead, ImpSS + Serpent Spread increases the damage of each Multi-Shot, and if I understand mastery rating correctly, the damage (and crit damage) from MS, SS (periodic) and SS (instant) are all directly scalable with mastery points in addition to agility.

Even so, all three trees guarantee at least some AoE downtime while you're replenishing focus in situations where targets have a fair amount of health and take time to burn down. And of course, the low damage from Multi-Shot by itself will be ineffective in endgame situations. For both of those reasons, Serpent Spread and Improved Serpent Sting will be must-have talents if you're going SV and will be counted on for AoE damage.

Another thing or two to keep in mind: Multi-Shot still has a 5-yard dead zone and requires line of sight on a single target, so it's much less useful than Volley in those respects (no more AoE in tight spaces or around corners). Furthermore, it hits all targets within its range and therefore may be inadvisable in situations where CC is a concern (and it will be in Cata).

The rumor is that AoE will play a much smaller role in Cata endgame content, so it remains to be seen how much these changes will eventually affect overall hunter dps during a raid. If you didn't over-rely on Volley in WotLK, all of this may not matter much. As for PvP, Volley was effective in breaking rogue stealth because it's untargeted, but because Multi-Shot is a targeted attack, it won't be useful for that purpose (some people think that was the main reason Blizz decided to kill Volley in the first place).

Comment by popopaladin3

Just in case anyone is confused NONE of the targets have to be affected by serpent sting for this to work. :D

Comment by ploppadopulus

In 4.0.1 public, Imp. ss does work with serpent spread.

Comment by Azaram

So, how exactly does this work? Multishot applies a 9 second serpent sting on everything it hits? Or it just does an amount of damage equal to 9 seconds worth of ticks?

Comment by Critacular

Is taking two points in this talent worth it? If you plan on firing off multi-shot regularly (before the 6 second duration of rank one would expire) would the second point be wasted?

Comment by Vanderez

@CmdrAdeon

I can personally confirm that Imp Serpent Sting does proc from Serpent Spread via Multi Shot.

Comment by Iaxon

This talent is really the only way to get viable aoe as a hunter.

1 point is really all that is needed is most cases as most of the damage is front loaded from improved serpent sting.

Comment by Jessicat

Not sure how noteworthy it is, but Cobra Shot does not refresh the Serpent Sting timer on targets affected by Serpent Spread.

Edit: I do believe I read last night that Cobra Shot will indeed refresh the Serpent Sting timer on targets affected by Serpent Spread in 4.0.6.

Comment by Anthisor

It should be noted that the damage done by Improved Serpent Sting from the multishot is based on the full duration of the normal Serpent Sting. If you have 1/2 or 2/2 in Serpent Spread the damage provided by Improved Serpent Sting will be the same. The only benefit to having 2/2 in Serpent Spread is to maintain the dot on the targets.

Comment by Eillesthis

So, to recap, if you have the talent as well as either rank of this talent, a Multi-Shot will give you the same instant as you get with the regular on all targets. With the double instants you may not care about the DoTs, since the mobs won't be around that long, but if you have the Noxious Stings talent your next Multi-Shot will do even more damage. Mucho AoE.

/Chimaera Shot will extend the timer on the shorter DoT, which currently seems to be just like the regular one except in initial duration, but will not give you another instant Improved Serpent Sting.(##RESPBREAK##)8##DELIM##ElhonnaDS##DELIM##

Comment by Qoko

My hunter reached 68 (now 70) and once you reach that level, you want to spec into Survival and , hands down.

The basic idea is that even with TotH procs Multi-Shots will remain to cost focus, and therefore refresh TotH at a 30% chance. All Multi-Shots will apply (Improved) Serpent Sting and therefore have Viper Venom up at all times. Once the amount of targets drops to a few you can switch to free Arcane Shots shredding everything still alive. More so, keep up Ice Trap & Black Arrow/Explosive Trap for Lock & Load to keep even more single target pressure. If you do end up graving energy, as long as Serpent Sting is up on your targets they'll eventually die, and you should Rapid Fire Steady/Cobra Shot on whichever target has highest hp to regenerate Focus in combat.

Note of warning though, pre-70 without Improved Serpent Sting, Survival is not that amazingly strong in dungeons due to the dots taking time to deal damage; it's just a two level difference, and it does get most of the job done.

BM lacks a clear AoE bonus except for pets and just allows you to pull more targets with a tenacity pet pre-68, and Marksmanship does have good AoE but simply lacks Serpent Spread and a good pet for sustained damage, and TotH Multi-Shots in Marksman due to being free will not generate new TotH, making this much weaker.